Clearly there is no perfect survey, as seen in some recent entries, but the design of and use of voter surveys now has a faculty member at Syracuse in the hot seat. Jeff Stonecash of the Maxwell School has conducted a variety of political polls for decades, using students as project staff, offering polls to all-comers, apparently, at cut-price rates. Following complaints from Democrats that the his recent poll was ‘partisan’, he has now been asked (told?) to stop. Clearly there are issues of appropriateness that might need to be addressed but one might also think that practical experience in conducting a poll that will be viewed publicly by a large audience could be an excellent learning opportunity for the students. Curiously, Stonecash is a registered democrat himself, and says he would have done a poll for the democratic candidate too if asked. In a wonderful example of understatement he is quoted as saying “I think it’s a very legitimate issue to ask whether a professor can do polling for candidates using university resources.” Indeed it is, just as legitimate as asking if conducting polls should be limited to profit-driven companies alone rather than allowing academics intent on exploring the process with students to participate. One wonders is the issue about paying for such a service or someone just not liking the results? The role of the university in society is about to be examined, one hopes, and not found wanting.
V.M Daniel Regents Professor of Information